About this artwork

A naval officer from Dundee, Duncan's career had been worthy but unremarkable until his last posting, when he emerged as one of Britain's great heroes of the Napoleonic Wars. With Duncan at its command, a North Sea fleet achieved a resounding victory over the Dutch at the Battle of Camperdown on 11 October 1797. Danloux, painting two years after the event, imagines Duncan, calm in the midst of gun and cannon fire, on the deck of the Venerable. The officer blowing a trumpet symbolises Fame.

credit line:Bequeathed by the Earl of Camperdown to the National Gallery of Scotland and transferred

Henri-Pierre Danloux

Henri-Pierre Danloux

A society portrait painter in his native France, Danloux's career was interrupted by the French Revolution. He moved to London where he exhibited portraits and history paintings at the Royal Academy. A commission to paint the exiled French heir to the throne at Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh, brought Danloux to Scotland in 1796. This visit gave the artist an introduction to the Scottish aristocracy resulting in numerous portrait commissions. He returned to France in 1801.